Tag: 5.45

Where most firearms enthusiasts are familiar with the ubiquitous Makarov series of handguns, few are familiar with its smaller, thinner (and arguably better looking) cousin – the PSM. While its reputation is as an assassin’s firearm, Ian over at Forgotten [Read More…]

The elusive Tokar-2 5.45mm belt-fed machine gun made an appearance at the recent Rosgvardia Open House event late last month. The event demonstrated weapons and equipment being used by the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia), and was open to the public. Russian media [Read More…]

Fresh off of the editing and framing masterpiece that is the “Inside the M4 Carbine” video, Larry Vickers does not seem to be resting on the upload button. His latest video features a unicorn AK-74 at least here in the United States. Most US shooters are [Read More…]

In the late 1950s, after the first public demonstrations of the AR-15 and its new small caliber, high velocity cartridge, the Soviet Union took notice of the radical developments in military .22 caliber rounds in the United States. By 1959, four years before the [Read More…]

Rumors of a new Magpul magazine for the AK-74 platform are confirmed: The company has just released the PMAG 30 AK74 MOE magazine, designed to hold 30 rounds of 5.45x39mm ammunition and compatible with all 5.45mm caliber AK rifles that take traditional AK-74 pattern [Read More…]

As part of the recent Russian re-armament program including the T-14 Armata man battle tank, the T-50 air superiority fighter, and the AK-12 and A545 rifles, the Federation has initiated a program for a new 5.45mm caliber squad support weapon, called [Read More…]

Back in March, I wrote a post on caliber configuration, or the effort to create and standardize effective and economical ammunition for infantry small arms. As mentioned in the post itself, it was written as a more in-depth companion article for a podcast recorded by [Read More…]

Armament Research Services has a post on their blog, The Hoplite, that is showing a recent video released by the terrorist group Daesh, in which they display the equipment from a fallen Russian Special Operations advisor to the Syrian Army. As far as knowing what kind [Read More…]

This post was written as a companion to an upcoming Gun Guy Radio podcast, hosted by Ryan Michad. The discussion below will be expanded upon in the show when it’s released later this month, but for now, read on to learn more about the past, present, and future of [Read More…]

Polish gun magazine Broń i Amunicja posted two photos of the elusive AN-94 rifle in use with Russian forces recently. The 5.45mm hyperburst rifles are seen equipped with optics mounted via rails to the Soviet-era dovetail scope mount integral to the receiver of the [Read More…]

An older design for an AK bullpup has surfaced from a trade show in the Ukraine, named the “Malyuk” and coming from a company called Interproinvest. Work was started on it in 2005. Essentially it appears to be an AK bullpupized, with the addition of a [Read More…]

I, for one, am glad we have never had a real all-out shooting war against the Russians. Their 7N6 is a nasty little ball round, designed from inception to tumble. To see just how much trouble the 5.45 round is, MrGunsNGear did a quick gel-block test using a Krinkov. I [Read More…]

There has been a lot of news about the Russian AK-12 rifle to come out this past Winter, and we at TFB have stayed on top of our coverage of the design’s evolution. However, since late January, there are a few things we have learned, so now it’s about [Read More…]

The AK-12 has just been approved for use in the Russian Army, but what else do we know about the weapon? TV Zvezda has released a helpful video describing the rifle to the public: The problem for monolingual English-speakers such as myself being that we cannot [Read More…]

Coming on the heels of (and surely related to) news that Kalashnikov Concern has decided to launch the AK-12 on the open market, the Russian Army has announced today that both the AK-12 and the A545 (improved AEK-971 variant) have passed state trials and will be [Read More…]

This review could not have come at a worse time to a better company & product. TFB requested the Adams Arms upper when 7n6 was plentiful. With the recent ban on cheap MilSurp ammo, the allure of 5.45 may be waning, but as a DI guy I walked away plenty impressed [Read More…]